BFI, KOFA and KCCUK Announce archive exchange to mark the centenary of the birth of Korean cinema

Post date: 30 November 2018

News category: BFI Season 2019

As the 13th edition of the London Korean Film Festival comes to a close, BFI, Korean Film Archive (KOFA) and Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) announce a new cultural collaboration for audiences in the UK and South Korea to enjoy each other’s film heritage.

This year's festival featured 50+ films, UK and international premieres, filmmaker talks and a whole
host of unique events. Following this exciting festival of diverse Korean cinema, BFI and KCCUK are
proudly presenting a bold and engaging new programme that delves deep into its history. Marking the
centenary of the first Korean film (made in 1919) each country will present treasures from their
respective archives. In February 2019 BFI Southbank and KCCUK in London will screen every known
surviving Korean film made before 1945 – many showing in the UK for the first time – while Korean
audiences will be able to see BFI National Archive restorations of classic British films. The programme
of 11 British films will include one of Alfred Hitchcock’s finest silent films THE RING (1927) and the
BFI’s latest restoration, DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (Terence Davies, 1988), and will screen at the
Korean Film Archive (KOFA) in Seoul this December.

BFI Southbank and KCCUK will present – Early Korean Cinema: Lost Films from the Japanese Colonial
Period – which will feature all surviving feature length Korean films produced before 1945. This includes Korea’s oldest surviving film, CROSSROADS OF YOUTH 청춘의 십자로 (Ahn Jong-hwa, 1934),
which is the only film in the season to have been screened in the UK before. It was once assumed that
all Korean cinema pre-1945 had vanished from existence, however following a series of remarkable
archival discoveries and the tireless work of the Korean Film Archive 11 feature films have now been
recovered and restored to their former glory. The season is co-curated by University of Sheffield Senior
Lecturer Kate Taylor-Jones and KCCUK’s Film Curator Hyun Jin Cho and will include a diverse treasure
trove of melodramas, propaganda films and newsreels from the colonial period as well as giving
audiences the opportunity to learn about the stars, the directors and the politics of this complex and
controversial time in Korean history.

The season opens at BFI Southbank on 7 February with CROSSROADS OF YOUTH 청춘의 십자로 (Ahn
Jong-hwa, 1934). Audiences will have the opportunity to experience this tale of love, desire, betrayal
and revenge on the streets of Seoul as it was first premiered in 1934, with live performances from
musicians, a narrator and actors, bringing the work to life.

The majority of the films programmed were made under Japanese occupation (1910 to 1945), and so
are products of a complicated and difficult period in Korean history. For example military recruitment
films MILITARY TRAIN 군용열차 (Suh Kwang-je, 1938) and VOLUNTEER 지원병 (Anh Seok-young,
1941) are highly inaccurate visions of the colonial experience. However, to just reject these films as
nothing more than colonial propaganda would be to dismiss the skills, desires and ambitions of the
Korean filmmakers.

Also screening during the season SPRING OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA 반도의 봄 (Lee Byung-il, 1941)
offers a fascinating insight into the Korean film industry of the period. The film saw a young filmmaker
and his crew struggle to bring the famous Korean story of Chunghyang (the most famous Korean
pansori, a traditional narrative song) to the big screen. Torn between two very different women and
facing financial ruin, the director makes a rash and foolish choice in order to realise his dreams.

The season offers the best of early melodrama with SWEET DREAM 미몽 (Yang Ju-nam, 1936) and
FISHERMAN’S FIRE 어화 (Ahn Chul-yeong, 1938). This double bill sees two very different women set
off for the bright lights of Seoul; one bored housewife abandons her family to search for love and
excitement and a young woman is seduced away from her small poor fishing village only to be a bar
girl (gisaeng) respectively.

The latest film in the programme celebrates Korean independence in 1945 and was the first film made
after Japan’s defeat. HURRAH! FOR FREEDOM 자유만세 (Choi In-gyu, 1946) charts the life and death
battle that Korean freedom fighters faced under Japanese occupation. Directed by Choi In-gyu who
had previously made colonial propaganda films, HURRAH! FOR FREEDOM shows the complex personal
and artistic decisions people had to make under colonial occupation.

TUITION 수업료 (Choi In-gyu and Bang Han-joon, 1940) – which depicts the lives of ordinary people
facing hardship during difficult economic times – will be previewed at the Independent Cinema
Office’s (ICO) Archive Screening Day bringing it to the big screen for the first time in over 70 years.
Taking place at BFI Southbank on 29 November, the day will also incorporate screenings, workshops,
panels and presentations on how to create transformative archive film events at your venue.

From 8 – 16 December 2018 the Korean Film Archive will screen 11 classic British films restored by the
BFI National Archive. Alongside a number of the screenings, BFI and BFI LFF programmer Kate Taylor,
will give a short introduction on each title. Additionally, Taylor will give a public presentation on 15
December outlining the work of BFI National Archive to preserve, restore and make accessible British
film heritage.

Seminal British films being screened include Ken Russell’s visually stunning adaptation of D. H.
Lawrence's novel WOMEN IN LOVE (1969) and David Lean’s quintessentially British romance BRIEF
ENCOUNTER (1945). There will also be a screening of Lean’s earlier film THIS HAPPY BREED (1944)
about the lives of an ordinary London family between the two world wars.

The exchange will also give Seoul audiences the chance to see two of Derek Jarman’s most important
films with CARAVAGGIO (1986) and WITTGENSTEIN (1993) as well classics from the golden age of
British silent cinema such as THE INFORMER (Arthur Robison, 1929) and Anthony Asquith’s debut
SHOOTING STARS (1928) a fictional behind-the-scenes glimpse into the early movie industry.